Singitasafari.com - Not Recommended!

There's a website called Singitasafari.com that I personally don't trust and certainly would not recommend to anyone wanting to book an African safari.

Note, however, that this is not the same as, or associated with, Singita.com, which is the website for Singita Game Reserves, a company that owns award-winning, world class safari lodges in South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe (See pics further below).

Update: This website, singitasafari.com, I'm pleased to see, has now been taken down. I assume someone with more clout than me persuaded the owners their site was misleading and potentially harming the Singita brand.

I originally came across Singitasafari.com while doing a Google image search for the term "lions". I do this quite often to check where my images are appearing and also to see who's using my images illegally and infringing copyright.

On the image results page for "lions", one of my pics appears on Pg 1. However, it's not from my website, but from the Singitasafari site (below):

That means that visitors who click through from the image are directed to their site instead of mine. So I'm losing potential visitors and hence revenue. (So much for Google recognizing and rewarding original content!)

Although the image is marked as copyrighted and the page from which it's been copied (Lion Pair) also sets out permitted uses, the publishers of Singitasafari have simply ignored this and appropriated the pic for their own purposes.

I've contacted them via their site, and also sent an email to the person listed as the Admin Contact for the domain, requesting the image be removed, but these messages have been ignored.

The page where the image is used says: "We've assembled a montage of the finest in African lion imagery from Singita for your viewing pleasure", while the caption reads: "Lion Kings at Singita Castleton". This is completely false, as the photo was in fact taken in the Kruger National Park and not at Castleton, one of Singita's luxury lodges.

Combining the words "Singita" and "safari" is likely to make readers believe they're on the official Singita site, which is synonomous with luxury African safaris. I hoped the genuine Singita would taken action to prevent this, but they say there's nothing they can do about it as they didn't register the domain name.

At the end of the day, it's probably not a big deal, but the fact remains: Would you trust a website that uses images illegally, in breach of copyright, ignores requests to remedy the situation, and misleads its readers?

Not a good idea for anyone about to spend a great deal of money on an African safari! There are plenty of reputable safari operators around, so rather use one of them.

In fact, if you're prepared to shell out the large wads of moolah needed to stay at one of Singita's lodges, definitely book direct with them (Singita.com) or through a reputable travel agent.

The pics below are from Singita Sasakwa Lodge, overlooking the Serengeti plains in Tanzania, that's operated by Singita Game Reserves.

Interior of one of the luxury cottages at Singita Saswaka Lodge (from $1,190 to $1,700 pp per night)

Cheetah sculpture at Saswaka, overlooking the plains of Singita Grumeti Reserves in Tanzania